Another Interest
by Cadnobach
Summary: Just a short fic. Set when Lucas was about 6. His parents get him a present, so he will have a noncomputer related interest. Please Read and Review.


Hi, this is just a quick fic, so I can get the idea out of my head, and get on with my other story. This idea turned up in my head at about four o'clock one morning a few weeks ago, and it's been annoying me ever since. It's a bit pointless; you have been warned.  
  
The usual applies, I don't own anyone, or make any money by writing this, or intentionally infringe copyright. But, all mistakes are my own.  
  
It's a bit slow, but anyway here goes...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Lucas sat on the edge of one of the mahogany seats in the drawing room of his parents' house in Buffalo, and tried not to wriggle. His mother was always telling him off for not sitting still, and he wanted to make her happy. But he was so excited he found it difficult, he tried to distract himself by counting the decorations on the Christmas tree that was set in the bay window of the large, richly furnished room.  
  
His father had just arrived home, and his father almost never got home this early even for the holidays. Eventually Lawrence made his way into the drawing room, holding a brightly wrapped box - about the size of a shoebox.  
  
"Lucas, you know that I'm sorry I couldn't make it home yesterday, but your mother told me about how much you enjoyed all of your presents, and that's what matters. But there's one more present I have for you." He handed Lucas, who was practically bouncing up and down in his seat, the box.  
  
The small boy took the box gently. He'd never actually received a present direct from his father before. Yesterday, when he woke up all the presents that he had asked for were under the tree. All neatly wrapped by the department stores they came from. But his mother had told him that Lawrence had been called into work already, and Lucas could open his present when she went down to hand out the Christmas bonus's to the staff. Lucas didn't mind opening his presents on his own, he didn't know any different.  
  
The same kind of thing had happened a little while ago on his sixth birthday. The presents had been delivered, oh, and there had been that party as well. When his parents had sent out invites to all the children of their friends. Most of the children were a little older than him, but Lucas didn't understand how they could be so dumb - they didn't even know the most basic scientific principles.  
  
A few days after the party his parents had taken him to see, well, they called him a "special kind of doctor", but Lucas called him a psychiatrist. Lucas didn't see the problem with trying to explain the theory of relativity at your sixth birthday party, his parents, however, evidently did.  
  
Lucas gently began to peel off the wrapping paper, taking care not to rip it and leave a mess on the floor. When he opened up the box, he looked in surprise at his mother and father.  
  
"It's a hamster." Lawrence said, stating the obvious.  
  
Lucas wasn't sure what to say. He had been told years ago that he couldn't have pets because they would make too much of a mess of the house, so he wasn't sure what to do next.  
  
"Thank you." Said Lucas looking from his mother to his father figuring that was always a safe answer.  
  
"Why don't you try to think of a name, dear? Me and your father have some things to discuss." Cynthia said giving her husband a very pointed look.  
  
Lucas took his new pet, and went over to the rug in front of the fire. He wasn't sure what you were supposed to do with hamsters, but he knew dogs liked sleeping in front of the fire, so he thought that hamsters might too.  
  
He sat watching the hamster and tried to think of a name. Every now and then he had to turn the creature around or it wondered off the rug. Apparently it was just a confused as Lucas was, because it just scurried around in circles instead of curling up and sleeping.  
  
"Why on earth did you buy him a rat?"  
  
"It's not a rat it's a hamster."  
  
"It's a rodent. Why does he need a pet anyway?"  
  
"You know what Dr. Owens said, a pet may make him more normal, give him an interest in something other than computers. You want a normal son don't you?"  
  
"Of course, no one wants a freak."  
  
Lucas had learned a long time ago that it was considered naughty to eves drop, so he didn't hear what his parents said. Instead he thought about the different searches he could do on his computer to find out about hamsters.  
  
He was so busy with his thoughts he didn't notice when the un-named hamster started to nibble at the rug, nor did he notice when his parents came in. The first thing he heard was when his mother started screaming something about antique Persian rugs costing a fortune.  
  
While Cynthia went to order the maids to completely scrub the drawing room from floor to ceiling, Lawrence explained to his son that it would be best if he played with his new pet in a less expensive part of the house.  
  
Lucas took the hamster and went to his own little suit of rooms. Obviously the first thing he needed to do was to find out how his present worked.  
  
It must have a really small memory board, and some pretty good artificial intelligence software too, he thought, as the little golden ball of fur ran over first his left hand then his right. He was sitting on the floor by his desk, with his screwdriver next to him, gently parting the fur on the hamsters back when his father came to check on him.  
  
"Lucas, what are you doing?" Lawrence asked slowly.  
  
"I'm trying to find where the batteries go." Said Lucas, distractedly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I want to find out how it works, I have to take the batteries out first." Lucas explained as if it were the father who was the child.  
  
"Lucas, hamsters don't have batteries!"  
  
"Then how do they go?"  
  
"They're alive Lucas, they just go!"  
  
"Oh, are you sure." The young boy said, people often told him things because they thought he was too young to understand the truth.  
  
"Yes I'm sure, have you named him yet?" Lawrence asked desperate to find a safe subject.  
  
Lucas thought for a moment, before saying "Hubble."  
  
"Hubble?"  
  
"Yes, Hubble the Hamster."  
  
"Why Hubble?" His father asked warily.  
  
"After the astronomer who discovered..." he trailed off watching his father's expression.  
  
"Your sure you don't want to call Harry, or Herbert, or something like that?"  
  
"I don't know. What did they discover?"  
  
A few minutes later Lawrence left after making his son promise not to try to dismantle Hubble the hamster. Lucas put the hamster in the cage that his father had brought up, before starting to search the inter-nex for more information; he still wasn't completely convinced that they didn't run on batteries.  
  
Two hours later he knew all there was to know about hamsters. They weren't very complicated. In fact the only interesting thing they did was store their food in those little check pouches.  
  
Lucas thought that he would quite like to see how they did that. He got some of the hamster food that was with the cage, and put it in with Hubble, before kneeling down and peering in the see what Hubble would do.  
  
Lucas stared in at Hubble.  
  
Hubble stared out at Lucas.  
  
After a while Lucas decided that maybe he was putting the hamster off, after all, it probably wasn't easy for an animal with such a little brain to operate cheek pouches. So he took one of the security cameras that the butler had given him to play with after the new security system had been fitted, and set it up looking into the cage. Before going to see what was for dinner.  
  
Ten minutes later they were all sitting in the big dining room.  
  
"So dear, what do you think of Hubble?" his mother asked, staring coldly at her husband.  
  
Lucas told them about the cheek pouches and the experiment he had set up to observe them.  
  
"Lucas, after dinner you are to take the camera off Hubble. You shouldn't turn a pet into an experiment."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because... Because... Because it's an invasion of privacy." His father improvised.  
  
Lucas didn't see how you could invade the privacy of an animal that lived in a cage that anyone could peer into, but knew not to answer his father back.  
  
That night after he had dismantled his experiment, Lucas got into bed, and thought back over the day. Over all it had been good. His father had been home, he'd gotten a present, no one had shouted at him much, and, after a few false starts, he thought he understood hamsters pretty well.  
  
He had high hopes of working out a way to communicate with Hubble at some point. Although hamsters weren't that intelligent, so maybe it would be easier to try his theories out on a more intelligent animal first.  
  
He wasn't sure which animal, but, anyway, Lucas was happy. His father had promised to take the day off work tomorrow, and take him to Sea World, and Lucas was really looking forward to that.  
  
The End.  
  
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